For authors

At BMJ, we work hard to support the authors who trust us to publish their work. From here you will find easy access to the range of benefits of publishing with a Journal, key submission information and easy links to all our journals.

At BMJ, we work hard to support the authors who trust us to publish their work. From here you will find easy access to the range of benefits of publishing with a Journal, key submission information and easy links to all our journals.

Since 1840, BMJ has been a leading publication. What is the secret behind our success?

At BMJ, we pride ourselves on having possibly the fastest publication times in medical publishing. Our average time from acceptance to online publication is just 14 days.

The content we publish is aimed at an international audience, and we encourage this by involving a mix of authors and peer reviewers from different global regions. Content drafts and newly submitted articles are peer reviewed by at least two international experts. Our dedicated Associate Editors send articles to external reviewers selected from a database of 3,000+ experts. Papers may also be sent to a specialist statistical reviewer, and regular expert contributors provide us with a view of the clinical context.

Rapid responses are electronic letters to the editor which allow the fastest reaction to published studies and articles. They enable our users to debate issues raised in articles published on thebmj.com. A selection of rapid responses will be included as edited readers’ letters in the weekly print issue of The BMJ. Their first appearance online means that they are published articles

Our internal and external clinical, scientific, consumer health and digital content editors ensure the quality and relevance of our content. We convene an international advisory board, hold focus groups of clinicians and patients, and adopt countless great ideas from our contributors. We also maintain the quality of our content by consulting thousands of clinical experts as contributors, advisors and peer reviewers. We have strict, defined methods for acting on feedback around patient safety issues and user responses, and all content goes through a rigorous editorial process. This process includes detailed peer review, pharmacist drug dosage verification, and technical quality assurance steps, in addition to a multi-stage sign-off process.

In order to maintain our clinical accuracy, we continually review our content against the changing clinical context by consulting practising clinicians with the aim of focusing on all the most clinically important topics. We are constantly developing our expansive topic list and asking our contributors to provide us with a view of the clinical context. As well as reviewing all appraised evidence for clinical significance, we regularly scan for drug alerts for important information on withdrawals and changes.

The BMJ Author Hub is amazing! A gift to the world of research. I am a mentor of Junior Faculty and am already sharing this resource widely. Thank you so much!

Tamara Ritsema, Assistant Professor, George Washington University School of Medicine